114 
BRITISH ASSOCIATION.- 1835 . 
Let us deduct then from the original admissions, viz. 51,523 
Died immediately. 12,1531 190-0 
Returned immediately. 700 J 5 
The remainder sent to nurse will be... 38,670 
Of these there are now alive in the country, under their 
ninth year ..... 
Balance to be accounted for. 37,717 
Let us now examine how many of these have reached their ninth 
year. 16,976 deaths under the ninth year have been ascertained to 
have taken place in the country; and 8278 children were lost sight 
of in different years (from the first to the fourteenth) of their age. 
In the records of the hospital, those children whose fate has not 
been reported are considered as dead; but as it is certain that chil¬ 
dren were frequently retained by their nurses from motives of af¬ 
fection, it becomes necessary to inquire what proportion those so 
retained bear to the whole. It appears that 6949 were never brought 
back to the hospital after having been first sent to nurse; and it is 
probable that all these died so early as to make it not worth the 
nurse’s while to apply for the small sum of wages to which she would 
be entitled. The number unreported is at its minimum in the third 
year of the child’s age ; and from that period it increases for seve¬ 
ral years. The fourth or fifth year being the period when the nurse 
might become fearful of the child’s being removed from her, we 
shall probably not be far wrong in leaving out of the question those 
that may have been kept back during the first three years, and in 
supposing that all those unreported after that age have been re¬ 
tained from affection. 
Of the whole balance of 37?717, we shall then be able to account 
for, as alive at the ninth year, the following: 
Drafted into the hospital above their ninth year. 9946 
Left in the country after their ninth year. 1477 
Restored to parents, having been returned from nurse ... 359 
Probably retained from affection... 1050 
Total living at their ninth year.12,832 
During twenty-four years of the period included in the foregoing 
statement, children were received at all seasons of the year, and 
without any restriction whatsoever ; many, therefore, were destroyed 
by carriage from distant places in severe weather. In the year 1822, 
admissions were restricted, during the winter months, to children 
deserted in the city of Dublin and its environs; and no child was 
received without a certificate of its actual desertion, and of its pa¬ 
rents being unknown. Five pounds were also required to be for¬ 
warded with each child from its parish. In consequence of these 
